Just got back from shooting my first wedding. Holy crap, that was hard
work, and I probably had it easy since I knew most of the important people.
It was surprisingly fun, though. :)
Anyway, my weekend could have been completely ruined, however, had two
random problems not somehow solved themselves.
First, when I got to the wedding site (a *beautiful* place called Monte
Verde Inn (monteverdeinn.net) in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada
mountains), I was getting my K10D and DA*16-50 ready when suddenly IT WOULD
NOT ZOOM.
"HOLY SHIT, I'M FUCKED," was all I could think. I had other lenses, but
nothing like that one.
The lens was stuck at about 19mm, and wouldn't budge. I dismounted and
mounted it several times, knocked on the sides, played with the focus ring
and aperture lever, nothing would make it move. Then, to make the lens
easier to handle, I went to take the lens hood off. Apparently that little
bit of torque on the front of the lens caused the zoom to unlock, and the
problem went away as suddenly as it had arrived. My heart was racing for a
while afterwards, though. I know any decent professional photographer has
backup cameras and lenses, but I just can't afford that (plus I was doing
this for free, so there was no hope of making any money later to pay for a
replacement if I had to run out and buy something). It made me even more
nervous than I already had been (that is to say, considerably!).
Not an hour later, as we were walking around the grounds after rehearsal, I
half-pressed the shutter release to wake up the camera and heard a rattling
noise from my flash. The zoom gearing in my AF540FGZ had decided to
impersonate a machine gun rather than work the zoom. Now, this wouldn't
have been insurmountable, since it still fired and I did have a backup flash
(an old one, but it works), but it was still another OH SHIT moment. Again
I played with the stubborn bit of equipment, and again the problem went away
on its own.
I don't know what the heck was going on with my equipment, but it all worked
in the end (I have 802 photos to prove it (would have shot more if I'd
bought better batteries for my flash. recycle rates were pretty awful)).
Many thanks to everyone who offered advice and let me look at their photos,
and big thanks to Nate, boyfriend of one of the bridesmaids, who brought his
good camera equipment and became my backup (he saved my behind two times,
and tooks hundreds of photos too). While I don't think I'm good enough to
do this for a living (or even half a living), I think this might be a good
way to make a few extra bucks from time to time. I just have to figure out
how much my work is worth, which will be difficult (as you can see from the
preceeding sentence, my self-confidence in this matter is low), and then
just get my name out there.
I know they won't all go like today's went, but it's something I can do
reasonably well. Might as well get paid for it. :)
John
--
http://www.neovenator.com
http://www.cafepress.com/calemp
http://www.cafepress.com/neovenatorphoto
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